Cebuano phonology
Vowels Below is the vowel system of Cebuano with their corresponding letter representation in angular brackets: * an open front unrounded vowel similar to English "f'a'''ther" * an open-mid front unrounded vowel similar to English "b'e'd" * a close front unrounded vowel similar to English "mach'i'ne" * a close-mid back rounded vowel similar to English "f'o'rty" * a close back unrounded vowel similar to English "fl'u'te" Sometimes, may also be pronounced as the open-mid back unrounded vowel (as in English "g'u't"); or as the near-close front unrounded vowel (as in English "b'i't"); and or as the open-mid back rounded vowel (as in English "th'ou'ght") or the near-close back rounded vowel (as in English "h'oo'k"). During the precolonial and Spanish period, Cebuano had only three vowel phonemes: , and . This was later expanded to five vowels with the introduction of Spanish. As a consequence, the vowels or , as well as or , are still mostly allophones. They can be freely switched with each other without losing their meaning (free variation); though it may sound strange to a native listener, depending on their dialect. The vowel has no variations, though it can be pronounced subtly differently, as either or (and very rarely as immediately after the consonant ). Loanwords, however, are usually more conservative in their orthography and pronunciation (e.g. ''dyip, "jeepney" from English "jeep", will never be written or spoken as dyep). Consonants For Cebuano consonants, all the stops are unaspirated. The velar nasal occurs in all positions, including at the beginning of a word (e.g. ngano, "why"). The glottal stop is most commonly encountered in between two vowels, but can also appear in all positions. Like in Tagalog, glottal stops are usually not indicated in writing. When indicated, it is commonly written as a hyphen or an apostrophe if the glottal stop occurs in the middle of the word (e.g. to-o or to'o, "right"). More formally, when it occurs at the end of the word, it is indicated by a circumflex accent if both a stress and a glottal stop occurs at the final vowel (e.g. basâ, "wet"); or a grave accent if the glottal stop occurs at the final vowel, but the stress occurs at the penultimate syllable (e.g. batà, "child"). Below is a chart of Cebuano consonants with their corresponding letter representation in parentheses: In certain dialects, may be interchanged with in between vowels and vice versa depending on the following conditions: *If is in between and / , the vowel succeeding is usually (but not always) dropped (e.g. lalum, "deep", becomes lawum or lawm). *If is in between / and , it is the vowel that is preceding that is instead dropped (e.g. bulan, "moon", becomes buwan or bwan) *If is in between two like vowels, the may be dropped completely and the vowel lengthened. For example, dala ("bring"), becomes da ( ); and tulod ("push") becomes tud ( ). Except if the l is in between closed syllables or is in the beginning of the penultimate syllable; in which case, the is dropped along with one of the vowels, and no lengthening occurs. For example, kalatkat, "climb", becomes katkat ( not ). A final can also be replaced with in certain areas in Bohol (e.g. tambal, "medicine", becomes tambaw). In very rare cases in Cebu, may also be replaced with in between the vowels and / (e.g. tingali, "maybe", becomes tingayi). In some parts of Bohol and Southern Leyte, is also often replaced with when it is in the beginning of a syllable (e.g. kalayo, "fire", becomes kalajo). It can also happen even if the is at the final position of the syllable and the word, but only if it is moved to the initial position by the addition of the affix ''-a''. For example, baboy ("pig") can not become baboj, but baboya can become baboja. All of the above substitutions are considered allophonic and do not change the meaning of the word. In rarer instances, the consonant might also be replaced with when it is in between two vowels (e.g. Boholano ido for standard Cebuano iro, "dog"), but and are not considered allophones, though they may have been in the past. Stress Stress accent is phonemic, so that dápit means "place", while dapit means "to invite". External links * Category:Language phonologies